Hanes: Louise Arbour is a formidable pick as next governor general

Louise Arbour has been a law professor, a trial judge, the first francophone appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal, a war crimes prosecutor, a Supreme Court of Canada justice and a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

But in a recent interview, the Montreal-born jurist and legal scholar said she never sought out any of those top positions.

“Virtually everything I’ve done professionally, I’ve done by accident. I’ve never had a career plan,” Arbour said. “The...